C# App Extends Windows Explorer

It looks like the C# language is gaining momentumI'm starting to see interesting, creative third-party applications springing up that are written in C#.

It looks like the C# language is gaining momentumIm starting to see interesting, creative third-party applications springing up that are written in C#.
One eminently practical example is a little utility called Command Prompt Explorer Bar 1.1, downloadable for free from www.codeproject.com/csharp/CommandBar.asp. Its an application written entirely in C# and so requires that .Net Framework be installed for it to work. The application hooks into the decidedly non-C#-based Windows Explorer using .Net P/Invoke calls.

After the utility is installed, pressing the hot key Ctrl-M opens an embedded Command Prompt window to Windows Explorer. The Microsoft Windows PowerToy Command Prompt Here is similar, but this command-prompt window automatically stays synchronized with the current directory in Explorers Folders window and provides a series of macros for a few system administration and common development tasks.

Its a nice example of a next-generation Windows application that does something simple and is just plain useful.

Timothy Dyck is a Senior Analyst with eWEEK Labs. He has been testing and reviewing application server, database and middleware products and technologies for eWEEK since 1996. Prior to joining eWEEK, he worked at the LAN and WAN network operations center for a large telecommunications firm, in operating systems and development tools technical marketing for a large software company and in the IT department at a government agency. He has an honors bachelors degree of mathematics in computer science from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and a masters of arts degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.